Buckets of Popcorn

Just a short trip report here; the full description (with photos) will serve as the program at the October 25 meeting.

I flew into El Paso and then rode with Karen Willmes and Dave West up to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. I had never spent a week on a caving expedition to a national park, but at least I had met most of the people I would be caving with last year in the Ozarks.

We spent the week in two national park research huts, equipped with kitchens, beds, and swamp coolers. Patti and Scott House from Missouri, together with Ed and Elizabeth Klausner from Iowa, had purchased all the groceries we'd need for the week. We pulled up Saturday evening, and the only vehicle I rode until the next Saturday was an elevator.

The research huts were stationed just above the amphitheatre at the natural cave entrance, the place where the famous bat flights take place each night. The bat flights were incredible to watch, but the National Park Service allows no photos or pictures. One evening we were surveying the amphitheatre late at night after the tourists had gone, and my headlamp pointed up to reveal that the bat flight continues at full strength well after dusk.

Our goal for the week was to work on a new survey of the tourist trails in Carlsbad Caverns in an effort to produce a detailed map for the National Park Service. Dave West's major project for the week was to survey and sketch the Natural Entrance area from the top of the sinkhole past the amphitheatre and down to the pit (Death Gate). I helped Dave some (kept him company and occasionally took survey readings), but we never really found ourselves out of the daylight areas. I did get to use my trig skills in an effort to determine the height of the ledge opposite the amphitheatre (22 feet), and this was added to the cave profile. I also had the opportunity to race up to the entrance when we wanted to survey 400 feet below the entrance and realized that the survey tape had been left up near the amphitheatre shortly before the bat flight.

The cool part about helping Dave in the afternoons was that the light was constantly changing as the sunlight penetrated deeper into the cave entrance and down into the pit. I had varying success with camera shots under these conditions. However, my most interesting pics in the entrance may actually be the video of the cave swallows ascending from the pit.

I also helped Scott House as he sketched Appetite Hill, an enormous breakdown pile with ceilings more than a hundred feet high. As we surveyed the tourist trail portion of this, we had the opportunity to describe what we were doing to the cave visitors. It was fun to speak to people visiting from all over the world, many of them not remembering the cave the same way as it appeared when they were kids.

Ed and Elizabeth started the week surveying the highly decorated Kings Palace tourist section of the cave. I was able to join them and listen to the tour guide's long description of what complete darkness looks like; they must've had the lights out for twenty minutes while the tour guide described the cave. When Ed was busy sketching, Elizabeth and I set up photographic shots of the Queens Chamber and the Papoose Room. Those photos came out very well, blending the commercial lights with Elizabeth's Sten lamp.

By Wednesday Ed and Elizabeth took me to survey the Big Room in Carlsbad Caverns. It was fascinating to step off the tourist trail and poke into the Swiss cheese walls of the Big Room. We had to be so careful on these walks to avoid crunching the cave popcorn that covered the walls, floors, and formations. Fortunately the electric wires for the lighting offered trodden paths. Behind the lighting I spotted cave trays and a cave cone not visible from the tourist trail; I've never seen these formations before. The last survey in the Big Room ended just before we reached the Sword of Damocles. Definitely a fun week of cave survey in a beautiful cave.